A pocket door is a sliding door that that recesses into a compartment in the wall at one side of the opening into which the door is placed. Pocket doors were quite in vogue in the Victorian era but then fell out of favor because they were hard to open and close, noisy and often came off the track. In recent times, pocket doors have, however, made a come-back both as an architectural effect vehicle and as a space-saving construction in both residential and commercial settings. In addition to the advent of improved overall design and better parts both in design and construction, a primary reason for the resurgence of pocket doors is that they provide a substantial space-saving benefit, i.e., a pocket door, since it disappears completely into an adjacent wall, can increase usable floor space by 10 to 15 sq. ft. on the average.
Pocket doors are readily installed during initial construction when the space between adjacent walls is exposed. Pocket may, of course, be installed as a retrofit but this requires opening of walls, which can make the project unappealing both in terms of the construction per se and cost.
As noted above, a common problem with early pocket doors was that they had a tendency to jump the track on which they rode due to faulty construction, damage or simply wear and tear on the track. When such occurred, the very reason that made pocket doors so appealing—they could be completely hidden from sight when open and took up virtually no usable space—became their prime drawback. The only way to remedy the situation was to open the wall and replace the track. While modern track and roller design has substantially reduced the occurrence of pocket door track jumping, it does still occur and when it does it is the bane of the home or business owner faced with the time and expense of remedying the problem.
What is needed is a means of replacing pocket door tracks without the need to open the adjacent wall, which would result in a much quicker and economical replacement. This invention provides a device and method of accomplishing exactly this.